Honda plans localisation for future EV and hybrid technologies in India

Honda Cars India president and CEO, Takuya Tsumura, has confirmed that the Japanese brand is looking to localise strong-hybrid powertrains. Speaking to Autocar India on the sidelines of the launch of the third-gen Honda Amaze Tsumura said, “It is part of the plan and consideration to localise hybrids in India.”

Honda India hybrid plans

While Honda was the first carmaker in India to introduce a mass-market strong-hybrid model, the City e:HEV, it is yet to introduce a second one. It missed the opportunity with the Elevate SUV, which is based on the City's platform, as Honda had not localised the powertrain. This would have made the Elevate hybrid costly, especially with rivals like the Toyota Hyryder and Maruti Grand Vitara offering strong-hybrid variants priced from Rs 16.66 lakh and Rs 18.43 lakh, respectively (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Now, as part of its plan to expand its India business, the company is evaluating a greater level of localisation across the board. Tsumura explained, “Generally, if we want to expand the business in India, we should do more localisation. Amaze has relatively high localisation, but future technologies also need to localise.”

When asked which of the hybrid technologies the brand would focus on, Tsumura replied, “At this moment, we are thinking about the strong hybrid. There will be a plug-in hybrid option in specific markets, which is costly in India. We have to consider what is the best fit in India’s context, and at present, it is strong hybrids.”

Honda EVs and hybrids essential to meet CAFE III emissions norms

In order to meet CAFE III norms that are coming into effect in 2027, Honda had to choose between hybrids and EVs for the way forward. “While developing the Elevate, we had to choose whether to develop more hybrid cars or BEVs as quickly as possible to meet the [CAFE III] norms. We concluded that it is critical to have a BEV based on the Elevate platform but with future models we have decided to go with hybrid technology.”

On the other hand, Tsumura also noted the hurdles in introducing strong hybrid tech, mentioning, “Unfortunately, in India, tax benefit on hybrids is less – only a 2 percent difference. That is why we decided to go with BEV and strong-hybrids as alternatives.”

As we had reported before, Honda is developing a new global platform (codenamed: PF2) for a number of upcoming made-in-India models, and this platform has been packaged to be hybrid ready from the outset. A 7-seater SUV based on this platform is expected to arrive in 2027 with petrol and strong-hybrid powertrains, while the next-generation City, which will also use the same platform and likely the same powertrains, is expected in 2028.